Oho, I haven’t been rocking out that long to the original yet, but Harmonix unleashed the worst kept secret in music gaming today by confirming Rock Band 2.
What they’ve announced isn’t that surprising, but it’s good to have official confirmation that:
- The instruments from RB1 will work
- DLC from both titles will be interchangeable
Now, really Harmonix would be off their rocker if they didn’t hit these 2 feature points, but it’s worth noting that in particular the cross-title DLC is actually a first, and Harmonix had to liaise with Microsoft and Sony to make sure it happened. It seems odd but the Guitar Hero franchise has never supported this - you can’t use GH2 DLC with GH3, and you can’t even use GH3 DLC with the recently released GH:Aerosmith - even though they’re from the same developer. So something that would seem so obvious is in fact an advancement here.
Harmonix have also said they’re improving the instruments - since RB1 instruments will work that suggests some incremental changes, perhaps softer drums and a stronger bass pedal, and I would guess some changes to the guitar, although on balance I actually prefer the Stratocaster now to the GH3 Les Paul (which I bought so we could play 4-player) - I know that’s fairly unusual but I like the non-clicky, firmer strum bar for fast up & down strumming, and I like the terminator ridges at the top/bottom of the fret buttons for fast orientation. My drums are great now they’re modded but better out-of-the-box drums would be very welcome I’m sure. Wireless will be a given too, certainly for the guitar, not sure about the drums but I really don’t see the benefit of wireless drums anyway, since they’re sat in one place all the time - a pointless way to burn batteries if you ask me. They’re also allowing 3rd parties to create instruments, like Mad Catz. Overall their attitude to openness and player freedom seems a lot better than Activision’s.
No word on songs yet but unofficial reports suggest that AC/DC is in, something fans have clamoured for for a while (I’m not a big AC/DC fan but I can see the appeal of playing Back in Black and Highway to Hell), and the total set list is rumoured to be a massive 120 songs, which is just ridiculous if it’s true. I currently have about 90 songs to play including DLC, and we won’t play some tracks for days - talk about being spoiled. It sounds like the list will be revealed at E3.
Obviously I’m rather keen on Rock Band and really can’t wait to see what the sequel contains. September is the release date (pipping GHWT to the post I see), although this may just be a US release - I do hope that they at least release the Solus version in Europe even if they can’t get the hardware logistics sorted out [Edit: yay, Europe will get it in September too][Edit2: ugh maybe not]. It’ll be a timed 360 exclusive again; once again I thank my stars I picked the right horse for Rock Band!
Edit: And we’re finally getting 12 more tracks from The Who in 2 weeks! So missing master tracks really were the reason for the delay on Whos Next. Good times - fingers crossed that Baba O’Riley made it in.
June 30th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
Yeah, I’ve always found it sucky that GH DLC was release locked. At the very least, they should allow the current release(GH3) to play older release(GH2) DLC. They would sell more DLC in my opinion.
June 30th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
I may cry if Baba O’Riley doesn’t make it in. It’s my favorite The Who song and I’ve been giddily looking forward to playing it in RB since they announced Who’s Next.
I love how Harmonix does things right (and Activision / Neversoft continues to do things poorly). Between Rock Band’s A la carte song downloads, cross-compatible DLC with RB2, and compatibility with GH2/3 instruments in RB (which Activision and Neversoft have blocked in the other direction), I just wish Harmonix wipes the floor with them and Activision is forced to stop raping the memory of GH1 and GH2 with more horrible sequels. But knowing Activision they will continue fornicating with the dried out corpse of the GH franchise from now until eternity.
June 30th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
So lets get this straight… Rock Band 2 will be out in the States probably around the same time that Rock Band is released in the UK for us non-Microsoft owners (read: Wii and PS3)… Well that sucks.
This timed exclusivity with Microsoft is getting tiresom and really hurting my chances of eventually getting the game.
June 30th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
I almost bought RockBand for my wii last weekend, until I looked it up to find that its been stripped of a lot of features, with a reduction in Audio and Graphics quality. wtf! I found out that GHWT will be out later this year. I’m not sure why everybody is hating on it, but from the reviews of IGN it sounded like it will be really good. The wii console owners are kind of screwed in terms of Rock Band gaming, at least for a few more months. (unless you have money to waste on RB for Wii)
July 1st, 2008 at 9:14 am
@Eric: yeah, GH:Aerosmith just seems like such a total cash-in - way more expensive than it should have been and missing a ton of obvious tracks (where’s Dude Looks Like a Lady, Crazy, Toys in the Attic etc?). Should have been DLC - I might have picked a couple of tracks off it, that’s all. Activision increasingly seems to want to milk the franchise dry rather than concentrate on giving people what they want, and with the GH3 disappointment GHWT will have to go seriously against the grain to be a decent competitor to Rock Band, because the track record of GH post-Harmonix is not good.
@Baz: shoulda bought a 360 then
As I understand it MS is stumping up a lot of cash for marketing Rock Band so that was the basis of the deal. All platforms have their exclusives (MGS4, GT5, LBP?), you makes yer choice….
@KungFooMasta: obviously Harmonix are concentrating on the 360/PS3 versions, kinda sucks if you’re a PS2/Wii owner I suppose but I’d rather they concentrated their time on making my version good
July 1st, 2008 at 11:34 pm
YES!!! Baba O’Riley made it. The level of win in this pack is epic, though I would have loved Pinball Wizard and Bargain as well. Regardless, I really can’t complain as that’s an excellent collection of tracks. Time to go run down the streets naked…
TRACKS: The Who 12 Pack
“Amazing Journey”
“Baba O’Riley”
“Behind Blue Eyes”
“Eminence Front”
“Going Mobile”
“Leaving Here”
“My Generation” (Live at Leeds)
“Real Good Looking Boy”
“Sea & Sand”
“Summertime Blues” (Live at Leeds)
“Who Are You”
“Young Man Blues” (Live at Leeds)
(All tracks utilize the original master recordings)
Price: $1.99 (160 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) per track or
$19.99 (1600 Microsoft Points for Xbox 360) for the entire collection of tracks.
Official Announcement:
http://www.rockband.com/forums/showthread.php?t=59753
July 2nd, 2008 at 8:11 am
Definitely a great selection. From my personal dream set Pinball Wizard, Magic Bus and The Seeker (which was a cover in GH1) are missing but I can’t really complain at this set. A greatest hits is probably better than a full Who’s Next release because they can cherry pick from other albums.
Now I just have to perfect the Daltry mic-spinning move and Townshend windmill / powerslide without destroying everything in my lounge, although I guess that would be authentic.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:50 am
Ooh, ooh - the following tracks have been spotted on Rock Band 2 preview plays:
“Panic Attack” by Dream Theater or Finger Eleven
“Chop Suey” by System of a Down
“Give It Away” by Red Hot Chili Peppers
“Everlong” by Foo Fighters
“Kids In America” by Kim Wilde
“Ace of Spades” by Motörhead
“Hello There” by Cheap Trick
“Anyway You Want It” by Journey
“Pinball Wizard” by The Who
I’m seriously happy about Pinball Wizard, Give it Away & Everlong in particular! It’ll be good to have Ace of Spades back too. SOAD will no doubt keep the metal heads who have been cheering them in GHWT quiet, although I can take them or leave them myself.
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:21 pm
Oh crap, they’ve announced next week’s DLC tracks and they include:
“Snow (Hey Oh)” - Red Hot Chili Peppers
“Tell Me Baby” - Red Hot Chili Peppers
[faints due to overexcitement]